You probably know Will Johnson as the frontman for Centro-matic and South San Gabriel. If for some odd reason stemming from a giant artistic and emotional hole in your soul, that doesn’t ring a bell, you may know him as the fifth Monster of Folk or from his contributions to New Multitudes, the collection of previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie songs by Jim James, Jay Farrar, Anders Parker, and Will.

Well, add to that list of credits, the guy who sings the song stuck in your head as you stumble around, arms extended to the sky, and belt out, “you said when there’s tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-iiiiiiiime, you will be here, mine.”

The legions of Will Johnson loyalists will recognize the power of this track right away, but for the uninitiated, you may think, “this song’s not going to get stuck in my head,” but then you’ll get to the end of it and hear the bass drum’s loose pounding growing bigger and bigger until the song hits a perfectly built crescendo, and say to yourself, “wait, how did we get here?” Then you hit repeat, play it again, it all makes perfect sense, and you’re hooked. The first hit’s free.

Will’s album Scorpionis out September 11th. You can pre-order it here and grab the free download of “You Will Be Here, Mine” below.

Sorry, there was an error fetching the song! Please try reloading the page.

Now, for the world, nay, intergalactic premiere of the video of “You Will Be Here, Mine.”

There are few things in this world better than cruising around in a golf cart, sporting a low country power ‘stache, with a koozied can of beer in your hand and your shirt wide open in the wind, but if you take all that add Will Johnson sitting next to you, singing his ass off, well, like an astronaut who has witnessed the majesty and secrets of the universe from space, you may have trouble readjusting to life on Earth as a normal person following that experience.

The video was directed by the Galassi Brothers and stars Tahmus Rounds. Will has even been kind enough to write a few words for us describing how the video came about, which we have included below the video.

My finding of the Galassi Brothers is a trophy etched with fortune,
oddity, beauty, and space. Hailing from just outside Petersburg,
Illinois, these two Otherworld siblings and I diligently forged a friendship
unbreakable by many large bears. In the Fall of 2004 I was in our
attic, looking through a box of pride, when I found their heads. I
posted two different listings in the Greensheet for their bodies,
carefully jarring and preserving the heads in a concoction of ice and
Gogurt. The ice represented the brothers’ solidarity, composure and
calmness, and the Gogurt represented a type of yogurt that is eaten
on-the-go. After seven weeks, Blue Man Group contacted me, stating
that they had the matching bodies in good condition. A union and
meeting place was agreed upon to reassemble the components. Boomer
and Adam, in their newfound and at the same time, original conditions,
immediately went on to artistic victory, writing and creating films
such as Troubadours and Salt Creek County.

There were more conduits, though.

In 2006, I found Tahmus Rounds on the sepia-drenched, cooling dusk of
a late September sunset. Bossman and I had driven some nineteen hours
from Texas in a Nissan, and he greeted us at the steps of an early
1970’s A-frame home. He was without a shirt, but wearing decorated
wings. We embraced, agreeing upon common connections while two
Springer Spaniels played at the base of the steps. The sun went down,
the quadrant was complete, and we quietly made inner blood pacts to
create things whenever time allowed.

Under a ceiling of Hurricane Isaac’s spinoff storms, we recently spent
an afternoon flirting with the ambiguous but tender relationship
between two individuals, and taking advantage of access to a fully
charged golf cart.

I kneel at the Fountain of Great Fortune for the continued nurturing
of these friendships, the bountiful fruits therein, and the
responsible quantities of liquor that propel it all forward.